Wednesday: arrive in Kolkata. Everything is great…until that evening, when working on the computer, we suddenly experience for the first time the “rainbow screen of death”, where the screen fills with rainbow static and then the whole computer dies and cannot be restarted. Use the phone to find the Toshiba service centre. Thursday: Reuben visits…
Category: Reflections
A little dramatic interlude
We interrupt our regular posts to present a movie made by some friends of ours, featuring Reuben. The whole movie was written, directed and produced by the 3 guys you see in it – check out “The Creep-o of Scary Ville”!
Our first few days in Addis Ababa
In 2006 I (Karen) spent a year living in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. It was one of the best and most challenging years of my life, and I had talked ever since about Ethiopia so Reuben was keen to come and explore it. We arrived at Bole airport at the unfortunate time of 3am (thanks, Egypt…
How to deal with touts and hassles in Egypt
We had been pre-warned that we would experience some hassles from touts in Egypt (we appreciated Mike and Ashley’s honest account here). We developed some different ways to deal with people in Egypt (note, I am not talking about people we asked for help, hostel staff etc but people that approached us unsolicited to offer…
A bad start to Fes
We caught a bus to Fes, which went smoothly and included a stop at a little roadside stall where we tried delicious fresh cooked burgers. When we arrived at the bus station at night, we were immediately confronted by lots of taxi drivers asking us where we wanted to go. One man attached himself to…
Attending church in Harlem
As part of our journey around the world, we have been checking out different churches and experiences of faith. From a small church in Ecuador to the Billy Graham library, we have been trying to attend with friends where possible and learn how others worship. We had been talking for awhile about wanting to see…
Wild Goose Festival
We spent six days at Wild Goose Festival, which we heard about when we were in South America and decided to volunteer at. Wild Goose is a festival of music, spirituality, art and justice…described by some as like a Christian Woodstock and held at a beautiful forest site in North Carolina. Their own website describes…
Happy Mother’s Day!
This is for our fabulous, wonderful mothers Lynette (Reuben) and Julie (Karen). Happy Mother’s Day to you both! We love you very much and are sorry we can’t be there to see you today. Thanks for being great mums; thank you for your support for our adventure and for being pretty adventurous yourselves – taking…
Far from home
The last week has been a difficult one for me (Karen). On Good Friday, my grandmother passed away from a heart attack not long after breaking her hip. My Gran has always been part of my life – she has lived near us for as long as I can remember. I was grateful to be…
Team Olson vs The Volcano
On Tuesday, we climbed the Volcan Villarica. We started at 6.30 and went by van up a long dirt road to the ski lift at the bottom of the volcano. I was a little daunted by the fact that we were wearing borrowed hiking boots which were very heavy and were carrying huge backpacks with…
Meandering Kiwis 